Top United States officials prodded Israel on Monday to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip and sought to restart talks aimed at releasing hostages as international pressure mounted on Israel to scale back its war against Hamas.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, making his second trip to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, declared that U.S. support for Israeli security “remains unshakable.” But he also said that “democracies are stronger and more secure when we uphold the law of war.”
“As I’ve said, protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral duty and a strategic imperative,” Mr. Austin said at a news conference with Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant. “So we will continue to stand up for Israel’s bedrock right to defend itself. And we will also continue to urge the protection of civilians during conflict and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Though Mr. Gallant said “there is no clock that is running,” he acknowledged that Israeli officials were discussing the next part of the conflict, as the Biden administration tries to persuade Israel to shift to more targeted operations after more than two months of heavy airstrikes.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
